A Perfectly Good Heart
by MyGoldStar
Summary: After Marley grudgingly agrees to attend a Thanksgiving dinner with Jake, she finds herself pouring her heart out to the last person she'd expected to talk to -Jake's half-brother Puck. Puck/Marley


_**Here it is - my one year anniversary one shot prompted by Fire Girl125!**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.**_

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Marley Rose sighed as she slammed the door to her locker shut - basically in Jake's face.

"Why should I help you? Why? You hurt me, Jake. You hurt me a lot."

Jake pursed his lips and continued his fight.

"I know that I don't deserve anything from you." Apart from a slap in the face, maybe. "But I promise that after you've done this for me, I'll leave you alone."

As ]ake was speaking, Marley had begun walking away from him. When he had finished, she spun around, resolve in her eyes.

"You'll leave me alone?"

"Yes."

"You'll let me heal? You'll let my heart heal?"

"I... Yes," he stuttered.

She bit her bottom lip hard, and said, "Then I'll do it. But if you don't keep your promise, then..."

"I will. Thank you, Marley."

"Yeah, well... Don't make me regret it."

X

Why was she doing this? Why was she wasting her Thanksgiving at her ex-boyfriend's house as a favor for him? Even worse, pretend to still be his girlfriend. Well, as much as it pained her to admit it, she still cared for him. It was small, but it was there. And a small part of her hated herself for it.

These thoughts rushed through her head as she dressed for the dinner. Fall had just arrived, and she knew a dark orange dress would complement her pale skin tone, so she paired that with brown ankle boots, leaving her legs bare because she wouldn't be outside for long. The dress covered her arms, anyway.

Her makeup, hair and outfit done, she waved goodbye to her mom and drove over to Jake's house.

She especially disliked the fact that she was leaving her mom alone on such an important holiday, but Millie has urged Marley to 'go have fun' - but only because Marley had lied, saying that she was going to Unique's house, not Jake's.

"This better be worth it," she whispered aloud, before raising her hand to knock on the door of her ex-boyfriend's house.

X

To say dinner was awkward would be an understatement. The food was lovely, of course – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie… Everything Marley loved about Thanksgiving, yet it didn't feel natural to her. She felt like she was invading. Jake's mom had questioned the two about their 'relationship' but as soon as Marley had snapped saying that 'they were taking things slow' she had instead questioned Jake's half-brother Puck about his relationship. He had gotten back together with Quinn earlier in the year, but it had turned out too difficult for them to keep the long-distance relationship going.

"She…uh. Quinn cheated on me. No hard feelings, we just needed each other when we couldn't have each other. It's easier this way," He had said.

Jake had clapped him on the back and said he was sorry and his mom and smiled the 'I'm sorry about that' smile.

This is about where Marley felt like she was invading. Whilst she was currently going through the same kind of break-up, she didn't know Puck – or Quinn for that matter – enough to be able to judge either of them for anything they did. Realizing this, she offered to clear up the dishes. However, she didn't get her wish of giving the three privacy because Puck offered to help. He brushed off her protests, something which didn't anger her as much as she expected.

X

When the two had finished clearing the dishes away, Puck began running the tap water.  
"I'll wash, you dry?" he said, almost hesitantly.  
She smiled. "Sure."  
At first they washed and dried in a silence, but for some reason, it wasn't awkward at all.  
"Are you okay? You seem… Different to when I first met you," Puck asked.  
"Yeah, well, I actually had a boyfriend who didn't cheat on me then."  
At this, Puck dropped a plate into the sink.  
Marley's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, I… Forget I said anything. I'm fine."  
"Marley…You… I. That's not fine. Did he really cheat on you?" Puck seemed quite astonished that his brother had done something like that, in spite of the fact that he had apparently done the same in his earlier years of McKinley High.  
Marley let her guard down for a split second and the walls she built up had ended up coming crashing down like a tsunami.

A tsunami of tears.

She brought her hands up to cover her face in shame of her tears, and slid down onto the floor with her back leaning against the cupboards. In a way that seemed alien to him, Puck crossed the room in two long strides, shut the door quietly and came to sit next to Marley. He then took her hands in his own to pull them away from her face. He wrapped his left arm around her shoulders and held her right hand with his free hand. He sat with her for a while, Jake and his mom forgotten, until her sobs had slowed.  
"Do you wanna talk about it?" Puck wondered. He felt Marley tense underneath his arm, so he quickly backtracked. "You don't have to if you don't want to; I just thought that it might help."  
All you could hear in the room for the following few minutes were two people breathing in time with each other, until someone broke the silence.  
"Okay," Marley breathed, sitting up a little straighter. Soon, she was pouring her whole heart out to Puck; explaining everything that had happened before and after the incident, despite it making her blush. Throughout her story, Puck sat with her, comforting her when necessary. It was a whole new side of him that he had never experienced before – a side who felt compelled to comfort the young girl beside him. To protect her, even. When she had finished recounting the cheating ordeal, Puck once again was quick to assure her by pulling her closer to his side and kissing her forehead softly. When his lips met her skin, the two felt a slight tingle on the spot. They could hear the forgotten family switch the television on, and yet, the two didn't stand.  
"Are you okay, Marley?" he wondered.  
"I will be," she sighed.  
In spite of the fact that the two had never really spoken before tonight, Marley and Puck both felt a connection. So it really came as no surprise to them both when they leant in. It also came as no surprise when their lips met.

The kiss was slow. The kiss was, by all means, not the Superman of kisses. But it was a kiss between two people who had just had a very emotional conversation. It was a kiss between two people who had an extremely bright future ahead of them – together or alone, that fact was still uncertain.

When they pulled back, Puck smiled uncertainly and Marley grinned. Yes, it was their first kiss, but after pouring your heart out to someone, and them in turn listening, the awkwardness gets thrown out of the window. They moved so they were seated as before, with their backs against the cupboard and Marley rested her head on Puck's broad shoulder.  
"Yeah... Hey, Puck? Can I ask you a question, please?"

He nodded once, curious to find out what she wanted to know.

She smiled once. "Is your name really Puck, or is it just a nickname taken from Puckerman?"

He laughed. "That would be funny. But no, my real name's… Noah."  
She looked shocked. "Noah?"  
"You can laugh if you want to," Puck grudgingly allowed.  
Her lips turned up at the edges. "No. No, I like it. Can I call you Noah?"  
"If you want to, yes."  
"Hey, Marley?" he said.  
"Yes, Noah?"  
"It's going to be okay. You know that, right? It's going to be okay."

With Noah hopefully by her side, Marley did know that it was going to be okay.

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_**It's not a crazy idea, really, guys. The prompter has actually written a story including them in it and it's amazing and got like a billion reviews haha. **_

_**Thank you all SO much for all your support over the past year. It means a lot and ily :).**_

_**Holly x.**_


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